"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Matthew 24:36
C. S. Lewis comments on the professed ignorance of Jesus, displayed in this statement, and wonders over it as one aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation:
"To believe in the Incarnation, to believe that he is God, makes it hard to understand how he could be ignorant; but also makes it certain that, if he said he could be ignorant, then ignorant he could really be. For a God who can be ignorant is less baffling than a God who falsely professes ignorance. The answer of theologians is that the God-Man was omniscient as God, and ignorant as Man. This, no doubt, is true, though it cannot be imagined. Nor indeed can the unconsciousness of Christ in sleep be imagined, nor the twilight of reason in his infancy; still less his merely organic life in his mother's womb. But the physical sciences, no less than theology, propose for our belief much that cannot be imagined." The World's Last Night, chapter 7, paragraph 10.
Lord, help me to take time to wonder, during this Advent season, at the mysterious miracle of the Incarnation. You came down so far, and gave up so much, to rescue lost humanity, even my lost humanity. I pray that you would continue to reach out to lost people through me; flesh out your love through my life that others, too, might be caught up in wonder at the God who was born as a human baby in Bethlehem. Amen.
C. S. Lewis comments on the professed ignorance of Jesus, displayed in this statement, and wonders over it as one aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation:
"To believe in the Incarnation, to believe that he is God, makes it hard to understand how he could be ignorant; but also makes it certain that, if he said he could be ignorant, then ignorant he could really be. For a God who can be ignorant is less baffling than a God who falsely professes ignorance. The answer of theologians is that the God-Man was omniscient as God, and ignorant as Man. This, no doubt, is true, though it cannot be imagined. Nor indeed can the unconsciousness of Christ in sleep be imagined, nor the twilight of reason in his infancy; still less his merely organic life in his mother's womb. But the physical sciences, no less than theology, propose for our belief much that cannot be imagined." The World's Last Night, chapter 7, paragraph 10.
Lord, help me to take time to wonder, during this Advent season, at the mysterious miracle of the Incarnation. You came down so far, and gave up so much, to rescue lost humanity, even my lost humanity. I pray that you would continue to reach out to lost people through me; flesh out your love through my life that others, too, might be caught up in wonder at the God who was born as a human baby in Bethlehem. Amen.
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